Christianity and Secular Culture

Ever since I was in my late teens, I have been interested in the relationship of the Christian faith to the broader culture. I think somehow I have always felt caught between these two sources of authority and self-identity, so my personal vocation is deeply rooted in this tension and seeks to bring the two together in a way that is both faithful and authentic.

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As a young Evangelical Christian I assumed the outlook that Christianity is a sect, a religious sub-culture in the midst of the so-called "secular world". Modern culture had been growing increasingly more secular for several hundred years, and the sub-culture of Christianity was by nature and necessity separate from the wider "secular" culture, incompatible with it, and in some ways was even at war with it, competing for cultural influence.

This assumption was challenged, however, as I realized that the secular culture has goods and potentials that actually exceed those of "Christendom", particularly in matters of human rights, peacefulness, and individual freedoms. In fact, western culture in many ways has benefited from the decline of "Christendom", and Christianity has indeed been outdone by the so-called "secular world" regarding widespread progress in social and humanitarian work.

At root, my own reassessment of the relationship of Christianity and secular culture has been the result of realizing that the Christianity of my youth was identified too closely with Christendom, the domination of culture by Christianity through political power and cultural sway.

Historically speaking, the age of Christendom came to an end in what has been called the Enlightenment. Christianity can now be avoided and resisted by its dissenters, a situation that brings genuine freedoms not realized in western culture since Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire in 325 A.D. Since then, Christianity has been encumbered by its own sense of responsibility for cultural arbitration, using political coercion and at times even violence; and its dissenters have been unjustly oppressed. Therefore, I think that the fall of Christendom should be celebrated and embraced, because Christianity in that context too easily becomes intolerant of others and tied to a need for cultural control.

So, the potential compatibility between Christianity and modern secular culture comes into view when we name Christendom as that which is always necessarily at odds with secular culture, not Christianity itself. Christendom having been dismantled, there is now space for both Christianity and western culture each to be true to its own ideals, which do seem to have a certain amount of overlap between them when it comes to peace and justice.

So at times I have wondered if "church" could be conceived as simply a way of speaking about the goods and potentials of the broader culture itself, a theological heuristic device of sorts. If Christianity can be surpassed by secular culture in its own work toward a just society, then perhaps the best way to see the relationship of Christianity and secular culture is one of basic mutual identity, each using its own language to say the same thing.

This could lead toward the notion, however, that Christianity is expendable. And yet Christianity, I believe, offers a unique and valuable perspective on the human condition and our relation to transcendence and should therefore not be dissolved into a kind of humanism that excludes the transcendent in its outlook.

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I have always found myself somewhere in between two polarized assumptions regarding the question of the relationship of Christianity to modern culture, and the search for a clear and satisfying synthesis in these issues continues.

I have been most enlightened, however, by the writings and the analyses of Catholic philosopher, Charles Taylor. He says that modern secular culture contains, as any culture does, an intricate mixture of goods and flaws. The goods of freedom, human rights, democracy, and the right to be different are intricately linked with flaws in our culture, like a lack of meaning (or a disorientation as to any possible horizons of meaning), a utilitarian view of human life, a confused hedonism, indiscriminate wealth, consumerism, and economic injustice.

Many Christians say that the goods and flaws in our culture can be sorted out and separated and that we ought to do just that: sort them out, unify ourselves, and fight for the goods of our culture while fighting against its characteristic flaws. But Taylor argues that the goods and the flaws in any culture cannot be neatly separated and rooted out and that seeking to do this amounts to choosing a side and joining the culture wars, in our case seeking either to reinstate Christendom, or alternatively to endorse an exclusive humanism that leaves no room for transcendence in human speculation and self-assessment.

The way forward, it seems to me, and the way to view the relationship of Christianity and modern secular culture, is to recognize the complexity of these things and remain open to the ways that our culture can speak to us as Christians, and us to it. We must not join the culture wars on either side but simply remain truly present in our culture, recognizing our solidarity with others as we shape our culture together through processes of dialogue and action. And we must invite others through our Christian tradition to hear in freedom the voice of a Spirit that is both immanent and transcendent, both "one with" and "separate from" all of human culture.